Welcome to the real world: New college graduates face life without a textbook or syllabus

Marko Georgiev/For The Star Ledger"Thanks, Mom, Dad and Joey" says the cap of a student at a graduation ceremony at the County College of Morris.

Congratulations college graduates. Good news: Your car insurance will go down, you will keep more food than beer in the fridge, you will no longer know when Wendy's closes.

Bad News: Your salary will be lower than your tuition, you will have to pay your own credit card bill, 8 a.m. is not early and you go from 130 days of vacation to seven.

To add fuel to the fire, you are now in a world without the security of a college syllabus with the possibility of a boss who will eat you alive before cutting you a break. If managers remain true to past surveys, you will learn that learning to manage ambiguity and communications skills are much more important than academic knowledge and the awareness of diversity that the academic world is attached to.

Sixteen years ago, you started school with a question mark that has changed to a period with the hope of some exclamation points along the journey. Your strong background in the linear world of academia will help logically and hurt creatively.

Here's the exciting news: You begin your career as you began school ... as a question mark. In your first few years, your success will depend on what you are capable of unlearning as well as what you learned. This column is devoted to suggestions for making a smoother transition from academia to the work world. The process is an acronym called CARE ( Communicate, Adapt, Respond and Elicit). Let's explore each of these:

-- Communicate- Success in the workplace consists of relationships and task completion. Successful relationships consist of communication skills and attitude. In a consulting study, managers nationwide concluded that communication skills were more important than computer skills. Due to its linear nature, computer skills can be learned in training classes. Communicating effectively, however, is an attitude as well as a skill.

A Harvard graduate with a poor attitude can ruin a collaborative effort. Please consider the practical value of the following quote: " Your attitude not your aptitude will determine your altitude".

Suggestion: Give cooperation to coworkers a priority. Teamwork increases in importance as organizations become leaner and meaner. A 30 percent deduction in the workforce must be absorbed by the remaining 70 percent. Additional suggestion: Many entry jobs for graduates require skills in customer service. Your tone of voice on the phone is critical as well as your speaking and listening skills.

-- Adapt- Dr. Deepak Chopra, spiritual guru and best selling author, stated that people who are flexible live longer and more enriching lives than others who resist what is.

When I taught management courses at the County College of Morris, I used a technique called structured ambiguity. It is designed to train students to accept the inevitability of change. As a college graduate, you no longer have the luxury of a syllabus that neatly defines requirements. In a nationwide survey last year, employers cited communications skills and managing ambiguity as the most important qualities for graduates to utilize. It is not textbook knowledge.

Tip: Observe as much as possible what is going on during your first six months.

Suggestion: Practice the following words of wisdom: " Don't give your opinion freely unless you are asked three times." During these six months, understand as best as possible your job and the manner in which the culture conducts its business. Determine what you can and can't control. If you can't control an event, adapt to it by experiencing it rather than trying to orchestrate it. If you work (and you will) with a person who is difficult, consider them your Master teachers in teaching you the gifts of patience, compassion, effective listening etc.

Suggestion: Underpromise and overdeliver. Most people overpromise and underdeliver. Don't say it. Just do it. Don't fall in the "yes" trap to gain approval or to impress. On a practical level, invest 10 to 15 minutes of your day to planning. A plan does not guarantee success, but it provides a map for direction. Begin planning by with a "to do" list and complete the process by prioritizing using the ABC method. The C's are trivial, B's are important and A's critically important.

Suggestion: An A is a task that is either related to a goal or has a consequence if not completed today. All other important tasks are B's.

-- Elicit- It is critically important to find a mentor or the advice of a veteran employee. Good experience comes from bad experience. Since you have no experience, please consider the value of honoring employees who have fought the battles and are winning the war.

Also, winning the war at college was your capacity to excel with academic tests and to research material without plagiarizing. In the workplace, the true test throughout your career is to know that you don't know and to observe and then plagiarize how the winners in your organization practice conduct business. Don't be surprised to see a positive attitude, integrity, attention to detail and effective communications practiced daily and with consistency.